While a friend was visiting recently, she asked about computer gaming. Sensing she would not be a starcraft fan, I opted to show her Civilization 2, the old classic. Popping out the CD, I started it up... and found that the CD was unreadable. We could still play the game (it was released in those halcyon days when developers didn't require your CD drive to be constantly spinning) from the install on my hard drive, but reinstall it? Forget it. And all the cute multimedia was gone ("Build me more units, Noble Leader, that they might sheath their swords in the beating hearts of our enemies!")

I've long known that commericial CD's are not terribly reliably made (pressed, rather than burned), but hadn't realized how bad it was. Instantly... I thought of StarCraft. Now there's a CD that is heavily abused by me, more so even than I used to abuse Civ2.

Stopped by Costco, picked up a 20 pack of Kodak Gold Ultimas, and popped the Brood War CD in... copied no problems. I realized of course, that this would be useless, without the StarCraft CD if I ever had to reinstall -- which I do anyway every six months or so as Windows gets more and more confused and cluttered up.

Popped the SC CD in ... wouldn't write from the copy. "Buffer Underrun". Tried on four different golds, including some junky Samsung ones just in case I had a bad batch from Kodak. No go. Thought about it... realized that an UNDERrun (as opposed to an OVERrun) meant it was having some read problems. Popped out the SC CD, got myself some 9-9 water (reverse osmosis, UV, and deionization -- recommended for use in the best silicon fabs everywhere) and cleaned the CD very very carefully and gently. Popped it back in -- no go. Grabbed my dorky ($200 pentium 90 -- hey Win NT/AS, 80 MB RAM, 8 GB is ok for $200!) server, and fiddled about to get the multi-read CD-ROM on that to talk to my Win box. Hurrah -- it read, just.

Moral of the story? Better be a geek with lots of cool toys and tools if you want to.... no that's not it :). Y'all might want to consider backing up those precious original CD's. Note that I do mean strictly for personal use -- I'm not planning any evil piracy here. Good CD-burners are running anywhere from $150-$300 these days. That's as few as 3 pieces of software... Of course, this is probably in technical violation of your licensing agreement. Would any court in the land nab you for doing this for strict personal use? Probably not. Hard to say though. In any event, cross the line and 'lend' that backup to a friend and you're courting disaster, which I emphatically do not recommend. 'Nuff Said.

Finally, I'll try and update this a bit more frequently, honest :)

Life has been pretty good, but interesting, the last little while. Sorry to all faithful readers for not being better about updating things -- I'm going to try to get back to several times a week! My job, however (I was promoted recently) has been very demanding; there's been a lot to learn. We also finally shipped product, and I'm now working on a new project which is really challenging me intellectually. (I manage a firmware/IC codesign group for a medium sized high-tech company in IBM country).

I've been loving Homeworld, and I castigate all of you who haven't purchased it!

I bought War 2 BNE and I think I've persuaded Soy to do the same. He has impressed upon me that it's an ancient game... still, I look forward to fiddling around with it.

Have had some of the best SC games ever recently -- I'm expanding agressively, massing well, powering nicely and microing well... ok my microing is starting to suffer! Soy and I were chatting (a propos of his nearing 200th non-UMS BW win on the id SoylentRed) and he noted that he and I had not lost a public in ... ages if ever. Of course, the very next game we played (on temple), we faced up against an experienced team, (albiet a very laggy team)  monkey-boy/toss... and darn near lost. My intuition (terran/toss) says let's hit hard fast; Soy says Nah, wait for meds. I grumble, but acquiesce. Sure enough, they rush him. A comedy of errors ensues; I want to counter toss; Soy wants me to save him, then to counter terran then to save him. The game is lagging horribly and my forces are blundering all over the map. Finally, I choose to commit and to counter terran. The predictable occurs -- he has a bunker. Unfortunately, the horrible lag makes it very tough for me to micro the lots to kill off scvs. Annoying that. In any event, Soy plays floater~boy, with his base in flames and nabs my exp. I cannon us in, tech furiously (soy's eyebrows are raised at this, but ever the gentleman he merely says 'K'), and do double reaver drops everywhere with some of the best reaver micro I've ever done. Even Inferno might be impressed :).  Soy staggers back into the game and finishes off wherever my reavers have been. I mass, and we succeed in containing the opposition. The game is ours.

Then... we accept a challenge in channel idle, again on temple, again toss/monkey-boy opposition. IN-Agent911 -- only catch is it's spelled "|N-Agent911" and Alex something or other. And darn it -- the pseudo-911 is good, very good. Soy goes into some turtle mode, going for a fast bunk; he gets cheesed by toss with a 3 lot rush; i foolishly misunderstand soy's plaintive commentary and go all out to hit toss... to only modest avail since of course he and i have parity in zealots (remember travel time boys and girls). What does 911 do? Well... suffice it to say it's a clever nasty strategy that absolutely annihilates my zealots. (no not bats, and not vultures you lamers -- Im not telling cuz Soy and I want to use it on you guys!). They then 2on1 SoylentRed, and, with occasional help from me, he survives. I again drop reavers, here there and everywhere. I cripple our toss opponent, but bungle my blind anti-terran drops. Of course, the expected happens, and Terran UPCLIFFS me... I am saved by Soy cliffing the terrans natural. From then on, we have the initiative, seize the islands, and contain without mercy. After many challenges, and soy's usual mad panic over DT (with no detection on his part) and several more even madder panics from me over evil abusive siege tanks, we prevail.

Of course, what set all this up was two good games -- Mor, Soy, me vs Ras, Scud, and DarkenAngel (76-3 record) -- the boys from brap and the girl from FS. We beat them on Razor Thicket (hardly fair as only Ras knew the map on their side), and then on the mutually agreed Dark Continent. Second game, Mor did magnificently, using his Fast Goon strategy (hint this is bad in a 3v3 when you are targetted :), and managed to survive. Soy and I helped keep him alive, all the while pressuring Ras horribly. She did a terrific job surviving, even through my evil (blind) reaver drops. In the end we managed containment, and control over a slender majority of the map's expansions. It was a pleasure to play such experienced talented players, and (I admit!) equally a pleasure to win! Admittedly, Soy and I (but not Mor) were well experienced as a team, whereas Ras and Scud were not an experienced team....  Still, I'll take 'em as I get 'em, though I think I owe it to Ras to have her on the Idlers team next time! gg's all, and I will try and update more!

Well, as those who know me know, I've actually been busy with real-world stuff -- travelling (on business :(, having rl friends in town :) etc.). A couple of useful posts have occurred on the forums; Elf aka DamnSexy~Lizard aka other things has set up an alternate Idle Field now that Idle Inferno is too busy; you can check it out here.
Homeworld is indeed out; my first impressions: as SoylentRed said, it is indeed a "very pretty game" -- especially if you have a decent 3D accelerator card. The single player missions are tough; I'm having to play some of them twice to get through. The level of micromanagement is possibly about right, though currently annoying. Controls are very easy, quite intuitive after a couple of minutes. Game is quite stable (so far), and the storyline remains captivating.
We are all waiting for PsiSoldier to put together the next draft page for the Idle League; news about this should appear here shortly.
I will probably tear myself away from my growing Homeworld addiction to play some SC this weekend... Admiral Angel of the Idle Armada signing off.... whoops, I mean Executor AngeLife of Channel Idle :)